Control System Engineering (CSE) October 2015

[knight1fox3]

Well in that case, there's always grad school. :thumbs:

 

[UserFriendly]

I really need to focus on reading the questions thoroughly.

All my hours of study have arrived at your comment. Going thru some practice questions, without having ever taken the exam this is my theory:

The quant questions will be the easier questions and there will be less of them. Trip ups will be in units, unnecessary info vs necessary info, etc.

The qualt questions will be harder and require more time. Trip ups will be in literal expression. Remember that the questions' validity have to hold up under examinee appeal. The literal answer will be the most correct answer or it can be challenged. If it's a fili n the blank and there are multiple blanks, each answer has to be true controls knowledge wise, but also literally in the sentence.

My strategy will be to take each question slowly, identify it, find the trip, find the solution. 6 minutes per question is a fair amount of time. Most calculations seem to be taking me under 3 minutes to complete. Blowing through a qualt question is not possible as a single word can change the meaning of a whole paragraph.

 

[Cali_eng]

Six minutes will be more than sufficient. I just hope they don't hit me with questions I can't answer from my references. I would prefer more quant questions but the subject itself doesn't lend itself as much to that. With number problems I usually know if I'm right or have no idea, and there's a formula with a method.

I just continue to look at the passing percentage number and think my chances are pretty good. Is everybody studying this weekend?

 

[UserFriendly]

I'll study for a few hours tomorrow and then an hour or so Monday and Tuesday, then I'm going to destress mode! One week!!!

 

[CntrlEngrPE]

There will definitely be questions set side just to fluster us...rem to not stop on those too long. I ha eat done much calculations I feel because the last year's exam was more or less theory, stuff u knew or just didn't know...last year I was heavily focused on calcs due to my engineering tendencies..I learned to switch to more of a reading prep this time...hope it pays off..

I will study all of tomorrow, Sunday, Monday and Tues a couple of hours, then taking Wednesday and Thursday off to go through everything once more...

Best of luck to you all!!

 

[CntrlEngrPE]

So how did you all feel about the exam? I think it was a pretty fair and balanced exam...agree? Obviously had some tricky questions..thoughts?

 

[Cali_eng]

Overall the exam was fine, not a lot of problem solving on it in my opinion. It seemed pretty easy and was mostly what I expected. That said, I wouldn't be too surprised if I didn't pass because of those know it or you don't type of questions. I took issue with a couple of problems for being too subjective. I sent a message to NCEES regarding this, I hope they don't count these questions in the scoring. I think they've done a pretty good job overall with the exam considering the fact that it's a smaller discipline. As it turns out, the reference materials available for the test are better preparation than I was led to believe so that was good. I sat near a guy who I worked with and he was taking the CSE exam too. He only had two references and was not very well prepared. I had quite a few books and references most of which came in handy.

 

[UserFriendly]

I found it to be quite difficult, but on par with the CSE study guide practice exam. I had several ISA published books that were useful references, but they don't have all the answers. 8-10 weeks for results, good look to all!

 

[CntrlEngrPE]

I too had a lot of references, and not all of them helped. I was happy to see at least 3-4 questions straight out of the study guides...I took like 10 seconds to answer those ones as I had the study guide questions down...schematics questions were simple yet, tricky..seemed like one needed multiple years of field experience in various fields to be able to answer all the theoretical/'word' problems..I was surprised to see that no Cv sizing questions were asked...weird...overall I felt ok with my performance..but yeah..now the wait begins..and I believe the results will be out in the 5-7 week time frame..theyve gotten better about releasing results quicker..

 

[CntrlEngrPE]

I sat near a guy who I worked with and he was taking the CSE exam too. He only had two references and was not very well prepared. I had quite a few books and references most of which came in handy.

Same thing here...I actually had two guys sitting behind me for the CSU exam..they too had only a few references...made me wonder if I was doing something wrong or excessive...but after the exam I got my answer...you do need a lot of reference material and need to be able to find the stuff quickly..

 

[UserFriendly]

I'm still perplexed by the topics presented and the quantity of each. Things I spent a lot of time learning that are not part of my regular work were nowhere to be found.

 

[CntrlEngrPE]

Yeah...so is the nature of the exam. After having failed it last year, I realized the exam has nothing to do with what we use on a regular basis at work...so I started looking at the exam as a mere regurgitation of info. type exercise..I will never size a valve or a rupture disc nor will I ever calculate SIL levels...so I switched to a more 'bookish' view of the exam...which is really sad...but oh well...what are we gonna do..

 

[matt267 PE]

While we wait for results, let's head over to the "games" section of the site. The spamfest (aka 10K) thread is a tradition around here. Follow me: http://engineerboards.com/index.php?showtopic=25794

 

[Cali_eng]

Some ppl actually do SIL calcs for a living which I've always thought were a total crock fwiw. I'm not sure what is considered crossing the line but NCEES ministers this board and does not approve of discussing exam content. I'm not sure what is not allowed. I'm trying to be vague

 

[UserFriendly]

They do monitor these boards be careful. I think it's good that there are standards, but with the internet of things, SCADA, PLCs, I think more and more controls work is focused on connectivity and interoperability. The 2011 exam spec is short on these types of topics.

 

[JHW 3d]

Cali_eng: It is commendable that you are attempting a second PE with this life situation. I have always been curious, why do some people like yourself choose to get a second PE after you already have one? Doesn't the first PE allow you to sign Cntly Sys drawings if you felt you were comfortable with it? CSE is a tier two discipline which allows people of other discipline PE to sign control system drawings....just want to make sure you are aware of that ...

In many states it is true that a PE allows you to practice in your "areas of competency" but this is not true with California, evidently. California PE's are restricted to practice only in the field for which they were licensed. Something of a bummer for me, since I just realized this, as well.

Alternate post with more information: http://engineerboards.com/index.php?showtopic=25802

 

[glockjacket P.E.]

Anyone take a review course for the CSE exam? was it any good?

 

[UserFriendly]

I would have liked to have taken a review course but at $1855, unless my company was going to pay for it, it just wasn't going to happen.  $600 is probably the most I would have paid out of pocket. 

 

[CntrlEngrPE]

I would have liked to have taken a review course but at $1855, unless my company was going to pay for it, it just wasn't going to happen.  $600 is probably the most I would have paid out of pocket. 

I took the course in mid-2014..and found it to be too general and broad of a review...almost no calculations ..mostly theoretical questions were practiced...I didn't feel like it was worth the $1400 they charged for it...IMHO..i feel one is better off spending that money buying references that the exam recommends...and spending the time towards reading all the references...teh guy who taught the course is really nice...but the material we were taught was just not on the exam...I know, not strictly the course's fault..but when you pay approx. $1400 you expect to learn enough to have a good to decent shot at the exam...not so with this course unfortunately....

 

[glockjacket P.E.]

I took the course in mid-2014..and found it to be too general and broad of a review...almost no calculations ..mostly theoretical questions were practiced...I didn't feel like it was worth the $1400 they charged for it...IMHO..i feel one is better off spending that money buying references that the exam recommends...and spending the time towards reading all the references...teh guy who taught the course is really nice...but the material we were taught was just not on the exam...I know, not strictly the course's fault..but when you pay approx. $1400 you expect to learn enough to have a good to decent shot at the exam...not so with this course unfortunately....

Which course was this? the ISA course?